Down Hall Hotel & Spa - Hertfordshire

A new rack dishwasher for one of England’s most established country house hotels.

Down Hall Hotel is one of England’s most established country house hotels. Located in Hatfield Heath, near Bishop’s Stortford on the Hertfordshire and Essex border, Down Hall is 45 minutes from central London and close to Stansted Airport. Dating back to 1322, the impressive Italianate mansion is set in 110 acres of woodland, parkland and landscaped gardens. Down Hall offers the renowned Grill Room restaurant and regularly caters for weddings, private and fine dining events, utilising 18 suites. Last year the hotel installed, via MEIKO UK partner distributor Commercial Catering Contracts, a MEIKO FV40.2G-GiO glasswasher. Most recently the hotel worked with Commercial Catering Contracts and MEIKO to replace their ageing main dishwash system;

Installing an UPster K-M250 rack transport dishwasher, with a capacity up to 190 racks per hour.

Will Lyons, Deputy General Manager, Down Hall Hotel commented, “Due to an increase in capacity and a forecast of positive growth over the next year, we decided to invest in a high-quality, top of the range, rack transport dishwasher. In my experience of operating this equipment, there are a few companies that always come out on top but MEIKO’s customer service is second to none.”

Also praising MEIKO’s customer service is Adam Doffman, Sales Manager at Commercial Catering Contracts. “We’ve had nothing but excellent service from MEIKO UK and from Regional Sales Manager Martin Pinder. Installing a large rack transport dishwasher is a complex process at any time, but this project involved additional pressure because we were approaching the peak time of year for the hotel.”

The project involved removing the old rack dishwasher and re-configuring the area to accommodate the new MEIKO rack dishwasher. The dishwash area was effectively reshaped to improve the workflow but strived to retain features that would be expensive to alter, such as the ventilation canopy. “We appreciated MEIKO’s attention to detail because the hotel is a valued client which provides top-quality service to its customers and expects the same in return from its suppliers.

The support we received from MEIKO was simply first-class.

It took three or four visits from ourselves and Martin Pinder to get to the final plan. He attended site for the initial site survey, then came back to suggest changes to the kitchen layout, which involved removing an area dedicated to drying glassware; no longer needed because the proposed KM-250 machine incorporates a drying section. The client was particularly impressed with how well Martin understood their business."

“Our final meeting presented the drawings for the new area. This consolidated MEIKO’s information with our own technical input and entirely met the client’s expectations. The client knew exactly what they were getting because we provided comprehensive information and even videos on the new machine.

But perhaps most importantly, MEIKO and Martin took the stress out of the situation for the client. The hotel was approaching one of its busiest periods. The old machine was proving increasingly unreliable and the client was nervous it would not last until the new MEIKO machine arrived. So MEIKO offered a hood dishwasher on loan to ensure the hotel had dishwashing capability in the event of a failure."

We were also able to provide further peace of mind because the client was delighted with the option of MEIKO’s five-year extended parts and labour warranty.

That’s why so many questions needed to be asked at the beginning of the process and why we were able to meet the client’s expectations so comprehensively. MEIKO and Commercial Catering Contracts were able to ensure our client had no concerns about their dishwashing at their busiest time of year.”

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UPster K

Outstanding performance and a compact footprint: those are two of the most impressive characteristics of the UPster range of rack type dishwashing machines. A choice of lengths gives you exactly the dishwashing capacity you need.

MEIKO undercounter dishwashers can be installed under the bar, in the serving area, or in a separate wash-up room – but wherever you choose, you can be confident they will always offer the same fantastic performance in a compact package.